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Building on aspects of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory centering around social interaction and adult scaffolding as essential to children’s learning, this study investigated the most prominently used strategies by eight teachers to scaffold social and emotional learning (SEL) in preschool children (ages 3–4) in the context of remote instruction during the 2021–2022 school year amidst COVID-19. These teachers (seven females and one male) came from two urban preschools funded by their local Board of Education in the state of New Jersey in the United States. These teachers (ages 28–44 years, M = 32 years) varied in teaching experience from five to 29 years (M = 13 years). Each teacher was interviewed for an average of 40 min virtually via Zoom. The interviews were digitally recorded and then transcribed for analysis. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that the three most salient strategies the teachers implemented to virtually scaffold the children’s SEL were: (1) involving book reading and discussion, (2) utilizing visuals, and (3) engaging in targeted conversations. In addition to adapting these three traditional strategies applied during in-person instruction to remote instruction, the teachers creatively and appropriately leveraged online resources to further scaffold and enhance children’s SEL in the unconventional virtual environment, thereby expanding their toolboxes. Despite their intentional efforts, these teachers found that there were unconventional opportunities and novel challenges in scaffolding children’s SEL during remote instruction not traditionally found during in-person instruction. Collectively, the findings of this study suggest that in-person instruction, due to its social nature, is still the most optimal condition for promoting children’s SEL.

Simulation-based learning offers a wide range of opportunities to practice complex skills in higher education and to implement different types of scaffolding to facilitate effective learning. This meta-analysis includes 145 empirical studies and investigates the effectiveness of different scaffolding types and technology in simulation-based learning environments to facilitate complex skills. The simulations had a large positive overall effect: g = 0.85, SE = 0.08; CIs [0.69, 1.02]. Technology use and scaffolding had positive effects on learning. Learners with high prior knowledge benefited more from reflection phases; learners with low prior knowledge learned better when supported by examples. Findings were robust across different higher education domains (e.g., medical and teacher education, management). We conclude that (1) simulations are among the most effective means to facilitate learning of complex skills across domains and (2) different scaffolding types can facilitate simulation-based learning during different phases of the development of knowledge and skills.

The influence of one teacher's scaffolding moves on children's performance in free-flowing child-led small-group discussions was investigated. Three moves were examined: prompting for and praising the use of evidence, asking for clarification, and challenging. Lag sequential analysis was applied to a corpus of over 5,300 speaking turns during 30 discussions to identify recurrent turn-by-turn patterns of teacher-child and child-child talk initiated by the teacher's moves. A complex system of influence among discussion participants was documented in which the teacher's moves had delayed effects as well as immediate effects, indirect as well as direct effects, and reciprocal instead of unidirectional effects. Some children appropriated scaffolding moves of the teacher and began to spontaneously employ the moves in later discussions.

Over the past decade, there has appeared a surge of research interest in language learners’ academic engagement and psychological well-being as important factors in improving the quality of education. However, research on the roles of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ affective scaffolding in enhancing the academic engagement and psychological well-being of their students is relatively scant. Inspired by this gap, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of Chinese EFL teachers’ affective scaffolding on their learners’ academic engagement and psychological well-being. To this end, a total number of 1968 Chinese EFL learners participated in this questionnaire survey. The results of the study showed that EFL teachers’ affective scaffolding positively and significantly predicted students’ academic engagement and psychological well-being. More specifically, it was found that teachers’ affective scaffolding explained about 73% and 65% of variances in EFL students’ academic engagement and psychological well-being. Moreover, it was found that psychological well-being and academic engagement were positively correlated and predicted 56% of each other’s variances. In accordance with these findings, educators are recommended to build up a harmonious teacher-student relationship to foster students’ psych-emotional development.

Discussions of power and privilege, oppression, and structural inequities in classrooms can produce complex understanding and critical analysis when facilitated effectively. In this article we present the critical conversations model for facilitating conversations that open up space for discussing such issues and encourage the development of critical consciousness and reflection through experiential learning. The model provides flexible scaffolding for instructors to use to navigate their way through classroom tensions and capitalize on spontaneous learning opportunities. Theoretical underpinnings of the model are explained, followed by a description of the model. Implications for social work education and next steps are discussed.

Theory and research have demonstrated the importance of teacher scaffolding to facilitate effective classroom conversations during shared book reading. When teachers scaffold conversations, young students can develop language skills more quickly. The authors describe a scaffolding framework and findings from research on how open‐ended questions provide the first step in facilitating extended conversations that adjust scaffolding upward and downward to match student responses. The authors then outline suggestions for how teachers can scaffold conversations during shared book reading.

This paper traces the origins of the scaffolding construct, placing it in its theoretical-historical context. The paper discusses the connection between Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and the notion of scaffolding, and explicates the differences between scaffolding and scaffolds. The paper then presents a discussion of the changes that the notion of scaffolding has undergone, especially when it comes to supporting students in classroom contexts. In classrooms where one teacher supports multiple students, scaffolding is distributed across various tools and social scaffolds. A discussion of the notion of distributed scaffolding is presented, to describe how students in classrooms may be supported by various tools and social scaffolds. The paper then introduces the kinds of distribution and interactions between tools and social scaffolds that need to be considered to support multiple students in classroom contexts. Finally, distributed scaffolding is discussed with reference to the key features of scaffolding, especially fading and transfer of responsibility.

As development of research ethics competencies is in the focus in higher education (HE) institutions, it is crucial to understand how to support the learning process during such training. While there is plenty of research on how to scaffold children’s learning of cognitive skills, there is limited knowledge on how to enhance collaborative case-based learning of research ethics competencies in HE contexts. Our aim was to identify whether, how and when scaffolding is needed with various expertise levels to support development of ethics competencies. To identify and evaluate scaffolding during collaborative case-based ethics training we synthesised a scaffolding framework consisting of three levels: techniques, mechanisms and process. We organised 5 training sessions where 46 participants (including bachelor, master and PhD students as well as junior and senior academics) were involved. Data was collected as part of action research from group-work recordings and transcribed verbatim. Deductive qualitative analysis was implemented on transcripts based on the scaffolding framework. Our analysis revealed that structural scaffolding alone (learning material) is not always efficient with bachelor level students, they also require oral scaffolding when the need becomes apparent. Master’s level students benefited most from wording the issues they needed to focus on. Doctoral students and senior academics needed scaffolding to maintain goal orientation. We end our article with some recommendations for facilitators of ethics education, and encourage using the scaffolding framework also in complex problem-solving beyond ethics training.

Computer-based scaffolding assists students as they generate solutions to complex problems, goals, or tasks, helping increase and integrate their higher order skills in the process. However, despite decades of research on scaffolding in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, no existing comprehensive meta-analysis has synthesized the results of these studies. This review addresses that need by synthesizing the results of 144 experimental studies (333 outcomes) on the effects of computer-based scaffolding designed to assist the full range of STEM learners (primary through adult education) as they navigated ill-structured, problem-centered curricula. Results of our random effect meta-analysis (a) indicate that computer-based scaffolding showed a consistently positive (ḡ = 0.46) effect on cognitive outcomes across various contexts of use, scaffolding characteristics, and levels of assessment and (b) shed light on many scaffolding debates, including the roles of customization (i.e., fading and adding) and context-specific support. Specifically, scaffolding's influence on cognitive outcomes did not vary on the basis of context-specificity, presence or absence of scaffolding change, and logic by which scaffolding change is implemented. Scaffolding's influence was greatest when measured at the principles level and among adult learners. Still scaffolding's effect was substantial and significantly greater than zero across all age groups and assessment levels. These results suggest that scaffolding is a highly effective intervention across levels of different characteristics and can largely be designed in many different ways while still being highly effective.

Facilitating diagnostic competences is an important objective of higher education for many professions. This meta-analysis of 35 empirical studies builds on a conceptual framework and investigates the role of problem-solving, scaffolding, and context to foster diagnostic competences in learners with lower and higher professional knowledge bases. A moderator analysis investigates which type of scaffolding is effective for different levels of learners’ knowledge bases, as well as the role of the diagnostic context. Instructional support has a moderate positive effect ( g =  .39; CI [.22; .56]; p  = .001). Diagnostic competences are facilitated effectively through problem-solving independent of the learners’ knowledge base. Scaffolding types providing high levels of guidance are more effective for less advanced learners, whereas scaffolding types relying on high levels of self-regulation are more effective for advanced learners.